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Inflatable Structures and a Falcon 9 Failure
August 29 2024 Space Industry Round-up

Newsletter #38
Welcome to Wormhole, a daily newsletter curating space industry news from all over the world.
You will find the news classified into 8 specific categories of space industry ‘contracts’:
manufacturing, operations & sub-contracts
financial events
core services
product partnerships & announcements
“customers of the space industry”
launch missions & contracts
government & regulatory contracts
🛰️ MANUFACTURING AND OPERATIONS
🇺🇸 Lockheed Martin future space structures technology
Lockheed Martin, the company is testing inflatable structures that offer advantages over all-metal hardware. An inflatable airlock unit underwent pressurization and depressurization appraisals on Aug. 14.
The inflatable airlock design was put through multiple, gas-in/gas-out cycles — essentially inflations and deflations to assess the extent to which its Vectran material strains over time, a process called creep
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💰️ FINANCE, FUNDING AND M&A
no financial events today!
🛰️ CORE SERVICES
🇺🇸 UP42 and Planet Labs announces partnership
UP42 announced a partnership with Planet Labs PBC, a global provider of daily satellite imagery and solutions. This collaboration significantly expands UP42’s optical data portfolio with the integration of Planet SkySat, the world’s largest constellation of high-resolution Earth observation satellites.
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🇺🇸 Redwire signs with defence satellite constellation customer for RF payloads
Redwire has been selected to deliver radio frequency (RF) payloads for a constellation of satellites for a leading European defense contractor. Through this work Redwire will extend its established, flight-proven RF payloads to overseas customers.
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🇺🇸 Outpost receives contract from AFWERX for hypersonic and rentry missions
Outpost Technologies Corporation (Outpost) has been selected to receive a $33.2 million, four-year, Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) contract from AFWERX’ Air Force Ventures program to develop and test a scalable heat shield, payload bus and paragliding system to develop a Joint Precision Orbital Cargo (J-POC) space vehicle to support hypersonic testing and reentry missions.
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🇺🇸 Stoke Awarded Contract to Develop Critical Space Mobility Capabilities
Stoke announced it has been selected for a $4.5M award by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to prototype a solution that will enable responsive and precise point-to-point delivery of cargo to, through, and from space.
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🛰️ PRODUCT, PARTNERSHIPS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
🇺🇸 Neuron launches AI powered satellite capacity management platform
Florida-based space startup Neuron has unveiled a new AI and machine learning-powered satellite capacity management solution called “Network Capacity Controller” for end-users in the maritime, aviation, and mobility sectors.
The solution utilizes AI to orchestrate LEO, MEO or GEO satellite capacity between ships, aircraft or remote sites in a fleet, with the goal of optimizing resources, performance, and quality of experience (QoE). Network Capacity Controller can also dynamically manage specific consumption pools between multiple endpoints.
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🚀 LAUNCH CONTRACTS AND MISSIONS
🇨🇳Galactic Energy launches Ceres-1 with 6 satellites on a sea based launch
China’s Galactic Energy successfully launched its third Ceres-1 solid rocket from the sea on Thursday, deploying six satellites into orbit.
Three Yunyao-1 satellites, equipped with GNSS occultation and infrared imaging payloads, will provide meteorological data for Yunyao Yuhang.
The Jitian-A03 satellite, the first for Suzhou Jitian Xingzhou Space Technology, carries a hyperspectral remote sensing payload for high-resolution optical remote sensing verification.
The Suxing-1 (01) satellite, developed by Shanghai AIS Aerospace, has an optical payload and will be used by Northwestern Polytechnical University’s Taicang Yangtze River Delta Research Institute.
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🌎️ CUSTOMERS OF THE SPACE INDUSTRY
🇺🇸🇮🇳Tomorrow.io partners with India’s TATA Power for weather forecasting
TATA Power has partnered with Tomorrow.io to enhance its forecasting capabilities with precise weather forecasts in different time frames, event alerts, and historical data analysis. TATA Power would be using this capability to forecast its demand for Delhi, Mumbai, and Odisha Discoms and all renewable sites spread across India.
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🇮🇳 🇹🇭 Thaicom and Hughes sign satellite capacity contract in India
Thaicom and Hughes announced Wednesday that they signed a capacity agreement for India, one of Asia’s biggest markets. IPSTAR India will provide satellite capacity services to Hughes in India via Thaicom’s satellite network. This will enable Hughes Communications India (HCI) to enhance its satellite broadband, mobile backhaul, maritime and satellite IoT services to meet the growing and varied demand for satellite services in India.
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📜 REGULATORY & GOVERNMENT
🇺🇸Bechtlel - NASA contract for mobile launch platform faces extraordinary cost increase and delays
A contract to build a second mobile launch platform for the Space Launch System could end up costing NASA more than six times its original value, a report by the agency’s inspector general concluded.
The Aug. 27 report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded that NASA could end up spending $2.5 billion on a contract with Bechtel to design and build Mobile Launcher 2 (ML-2), the launch platform that will be used by the larger Block 1B version of SLS, and may not be ready to support a launch until 2029.
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🇺🇸 Falcon 9 launches on hold after booster landing failure
Falcon 9 launches are temporarily on hold as the Federal Aviation Administration looks into any public safety implications of the failed landing of a booster early Aug. 28.
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